The Indian online lender Indifi Technologies is working with Google to offer instant loans to small merchants through the Google Pay platform.
According to published reports Friday (Jan. 14), the partnership is designed to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) gain access to working capital.
“Several small businesses in India still struggle to run their operations seamlessly due to lack of access to formal credit,” said Aditya Harkauli, Indifi’s chief business officer. Since its inception, Indifi has strived to address this credit gap. Our collaboration with Google Pay is another step in this direction.”
Adds Sharath Bulusu, director of product management for Google: “Access to reliable credit is critical to the massive MSME sector in India. This is even more important to help businesses adapt to the altered economic landscape in the aftermath of the pandemic. We are committed to making reliable credit easy and convenient for more than 10 million merchants who use the Google Pay for Business app. Our collaboration with Indifi is a great step in this direction.”
The companies say the program’s lending experience is designed to be simple and completely digital. Merchants will see loan offers from Indifi on the Google Pay for Business app, which they can click to complete an application.
Once they apply, Indifi evaluates a series of criteria using its API integrations to make an instant credit decision. Google Pay’s reach of more than 10 million merchants will make it easier for Indifi’s to offer easy access to finance to India’s MSMEs.
Read more: Facebook Launches SMB Loan Program With India’s Indifi
Indifi says the partnership meshes with its “differentiated ecosystem-based approach to lending.” The company has previously worked with firms such as Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato and, in August of 2021, Facebook.
In that partnership, Facebook and Indifi teamed up to help bring on more local businesses in India as Facebook advertisers. The social media giant worked with Indifi to offer loans of 500,000 rupees to 5 million rupees ($6,719 to $67,191).
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